"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." (Matthew 6:13-16)
I could not believe my ears. They were actually arguing about whether salt could be chemically changed into something less salty! As if that were even important. I walked out of that class shaking my head.
Now, of course the salt used in Jesus' day wasn't like ours. What you and I buy in the stores is more or less artificially produced in a highly purified form of 99.99% sodium chloride. The salt used in the 1st Century AD was not so pure, usually. It was mined from the earth, so it was essentially dirt, or rather soft rock. It was often slightly colored gray or brown, and when broken up for food use, faintly yellow. It contained all sorts of other minerals. Perhaps we could debate whether it was any healthier than what we use today, but that also would be missing the point.
All that matters is this: if salt from a mine was not salty, what was it? Dirt. The stuff on the ground on which we walk. So if salt didn't do what salt was intended to do, if it didn't serve the purpose for which folks worked hard to dig it out of the ground, then why bother keeping it separate from the ground? It's just dirt.
What is it that salt does, that makes it worth all the trouble to get? Two things are obvious: taste and preservation. In a world where spices were a luxury, the one thing to prevent food from being bland was salt. We could easily get bogged down in yet another debate over whether the desire for salted food is learned or natural, but that's also missing the point. Jesus simply used an illustration that even poor folks would recognize, which was that they liked some food with salt. Some of what they had to eat was frankly unpalatable without it.
In this world, were it not for people who love the Lord, and earnestly desire to please Him, humanity would be downright unpalatable to God. Ask the generation of Jonah, how many of those folks cared at all what Jehovah thought of their lives. They all ended up floating carcasses. As you and I seek today to serve the Father, we are often what holds back another flood of destruction -- though He promised it would not be literal water the next time.
Salt serves another, perhaps more important purpose: preservation. In a time when refrigeration meant hauling stuff up into the highest mountains above the snow line, salt was literally a life saver. Until rather recent human history, meat was for many a delicacy, expensive and not served at every meal. When meat could be had, it was often not in convenient serving sizes. One would purchase a leg of some animal, take it home and attempt to preserve it from rot and decay until it was all eaten. The easiest way was to salt it down. Indeed, so very much of what meat was eaten then was salted that it may account for why we all prefer it that way, even today.
Depending on whom you ask, it is plausible to assert that much of what is today called "Western Civilization" was the result of some sort of Christianity. When the Apostles first began spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it was quite new. Rome officially persecuted Christians off and on for the next 300 years after the Ascension. Eventually, the Faith won out and became officially tolerated, then officially supported. While it thus suffered some corruption by its mixture with politics, it nonetheless remained a positive force for change in the world, particularly in culture. As the old Christian Rome fell to the pagan Germanic tribes, it seemed to disappear for awhile. Yet a short time later it became the new religion of one very powerful Germanic king, who then conquered and exported his new faith among his kindred. Thus, from the ashes of a Europe overrun by German hordes, the light of civilization dawned on them, as well.
While noting sadly the strong element of politics and paganism mixed in to this Medieval Christian religion, it was still the same Jesus and His teachings that tamed the savage hordes. Since then, Christianity has usually been a symbol of less change, and a conservation of tradition. This is because most of that tradition reflects biblical virtues, even if mixed with something purely cultural at times. While we might disagree about what is and is not moral -- i.e., Christlike -- that there is a morality easily recognized by all is quite an achievement in itself. Bring Christianity to any culture, and there will be demands for change. Try to undo those changes later and Christians are likely to fuss. Silence their voices, remove their witness, and the culture will rot and become worthless.
I must chase one little rabbit here in stating clearly what I've only hinted at above: there is no definitive "Christian Culture." Enshrine Christ in any cultural dressing, and He becomes a prisoner. His teachings will be locked in some structure that will eventually be yesterday's ruins. Rather, Christ's teachings are reflected in a set of values -- this is good, that is bad -- that stand above culture, and find varied expressions in different cultures, at different times.
And thus we are brought back to the main path: we are to be a light to the people around us. We as believers are the source of God's revelation to our world. It is the nature of light to bring into stark clarity where and what everything is. Simply grappling with everyday things from an Eternal standpoint is itself revealing. That we care and seek to promote what really and truly matters to God is our first and best sermon to all we touch. It is inevitable that some things offered us must be rejected, because Our God is Holy, and expects the same of us. That we may also get a chance to explain the nature of our objections is all we can hope for. Where it goes from there is God's business.
With the images of both salt and light, there is an implied warning. If we fail to be what salt ought to be, if we fail to do what light by its nature does, we are unworthy of Him Who made us salt and light. Jesus' half-brother James would say that faith which is secret is no faith at all. Even when folks around us don't know what to label it, there must be an obvious difference between our presence and our absence. If our presence makes no significant difference, then why do we exist? Why does He mine us from the ground of common humanity; why does He set our hearts on fire?
We must make a difference. It is our nature.
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Ed Hurst
28 October 2002
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